Keg tapping assembly

ABSTRACT

A keg tapping assembly comprising a tavern unit having two prongs which are sleeve-like with tapered ends to unseat the two spring closed valves of a permanently attached keg unit detachably connected to the top central hole of a keg, upon insertion into the keg unit. The invention embodies an attachment having two bores through which said prongs are detachably fitted, each bore including a one-way valve. One bore is directly connected to a tap rod insertable in the top center opening,- and the other bore is connected to a valved outlet connection at the bottom of a keg. By simply unplugging the tavern unit from the keg unit and plugging it into said attachment it is selectively usable on either a conventional single connection tap or on the older double connection tap. A one-way valve is also provided in the air connection of the tavern unit.

United States Patent [191 Zucconi *Feb.' 5, 1974 KEG TAPPING ASSEMBLY I 2,157,966 5/1939 Reisingeretal. 222/4007 [76] Inventor: Homer R. Zucconi, 421 Speer St.

N., Belle Vernon, Pa. 15012 The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to Feb. 27, 1990, has been disclaimed.

Filed: Dec. 29, 1972 Appl. No.: 319,454

Related us; Application Data Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 190,796, Oct. 20, 1971.

Notice:

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1970 Johnston t. 222/4007 1 H1940 Wanderski et a1... ZZZ/400.7

11/1898 Habermann 222/4007 l/l956 Daun 222/4007 Primary Examiner-Robert B.- Reeves Assistant Examiner-David A. Scherbel 57 ABSTRACT two bores through which said prongs are detachably fitted, each bore including a one-way valve. One bore is directly connected to a tap rod insertable in the top center opening,- and the other'bore is connected to a valved outlet connection at the bottom of a keg. By simply unplugging the tavern unit from the kegunit and plugging it into said attachment it is selectively usable on either a conventional single connection tap or on the older double connection tap. A one-way valve is also provided in the air connection of the tavern unit.

.3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 1 KEG TAPPING ASSEMBLY This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser. No. 190,796, filed Oct. 20, 1971, and relates to an attachment for enabling the use of a conventional tapping attachment for application to two different tapping systems, namely, one in which a single tapping connection is made'at the top (central) hole axially of the keg, or to one in which a connection is made not only at the top central hole, but also at a bottom side hole, which double connections have been used for many years in the industry.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,413, illustrates and describes the former, single type of connection, comprising a permanently mounted keg unit attached to the top central hole and having two, spring-biased one way valves which are normally closed but which are unseated by plugging in a two pronged plug-in tavern unit which is illustrated with some modification in FIG. 2 of the present application.

An outstanding disadvantage of such type of connection is that it cannot be used on beer kegs involving a one-way conventional air valve extending through the top central hole for introducing air and a secondary connection at the bottom side portion of the keg from which beer is drawn. While such double connection, which has been used for a very long time in the beer industry, involves some-difficulty in installation,.it still remains as a superior type from the standpointof sanitation since it avoids contamination of the beer as often occurs from the plastic hose which is attached to the keg unit and extends through the beer along the entire axis of the barrel.

Therefore, taverns that have adopted the moremodern single connection tapping device, described in the aforesaid patent, have often'encountered the necessity of tapping a two connection keg in which event it has been necessary to completely disconnect and disassemble the abovementioned single connecting device and to become involved in the difficult and time consumingtask of making entirely new air and beer connections, which may have to be disconnected perhaps on the succeeding keg, which may be of the single connection type made at only one opening at the top.

' An object of the present invention is to overcome the abovenamed disadvantages by employing the more modern single connection attachment for selective'use either as a sole attachment for a single, connection at the top of the keg, as described in said patent, or for use for a double connection to kegs having one opening at the top and the other opening at the bottom side of the keg, so as to completely eliminate the time-consumimg task of completely disassembling and changing the air and beer systems when going from a single connection keg to a double connection keg, or vice versa.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improvement over my earlier filed application involving the use of one-way valves in my attachments to prevent the possibility of loss of bear if a valve is accidentally left in the open position when the attachments are unplugged.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly broken away, of a system for a beer keg embodying the attachment of the present invention;

2 FIG. 2 is' an enlarged, elevational view of an improved tavern plug-in unit used for a single connection keg and shows an improvedattachment embodying the present invention into which the prong elements may be plugged in; and,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the rubber one-way valve shown in FIG. 2.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, showing a double connection keg, numeral 1 denotes a keg of wood or metal containing beer or any other liquid. A conventional tap unit has a handle 2 and a built-in spring-closed valve (not shown). By turning handle 2, the unit is sealed and the valve is opened to introduce compressed air into the keg through a pipe 3. A second connection 4 is made at the side of the bottom of the keg, through which connection beer under pressure is extracted from the keg-and flows upwardly through valve 5 and flexible hose 6. The top end of pipe -3. is screw threaded to attachment 8 (see FIG. 2). The

top end of hose 6 is connected by nut 33 to a connector 32 includinga one way valve 27 normally closed by spring 29 seated in well 30 of plug 31. Connector 32 is screwthreaded to the bottom port-26;

Portions of the outer surface 9 of the attachment 8 are preferably knurled and the top outer surface thereof is externally threaded at 10a so that it may be screw threadedly connected to the internal threads of a connecting ring 10 of a tavern plug-in unit 9 of a single connection keg, tapping device, generally of the construction described in detail in; the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,4 13,.for plugging intoakeg unit shown in said patent which is of different construction to that in FIG. 1. Generally stated, the tavern plug-in unit of FIG. 2 comprises tubular prongs 23. and 25 which are beveled at the bottom ends to make substantially a point connection with two one-way valves embodied in the keg unit plugged into the central. top opening of the keg, in the case of a singleconnection tapping device,

so that when the connecting device shown at the top of FIG. 2 is used in its normaljway as a single connecting device, it is inserted in such keg unit and, M50 doing, prongs 23 and 25 will unseat the two spring biased valves so as to permit introduction of compressed air through the central top opening of the keg andto allow beer to flow from the keg upwardly through the threaded beer outlet connectionto which may be connected a flexible hose 12 leading to the beer dispensing spigot (not shown).

In operation, assume that the keg tapping device at the top of FIG. 2 is connected directly to the single connection keg unit inthe normal manner as described in the aforesaid U.S. Pat No. 3,228,413. If the tavern keeper now wishes to dispense beer by a two connection method, which includes a tapping unit and handle 2 as shown in FIG. 1, as conventionally used for many years in the beer industry, he simply unscrews the knurled nut or ring 10, and withdraws the tavern unit shown at the top of FIG. 2 from the keg unit, withdrawing prongs 23 and 25 from the keg unit and plugs such prongs into the attachment 8 of the present invention by inserting prongs 23 and 25 through closely fitting bores 24 and 26 to provide an assembly as shown in FIG. 1, so that upon connecting hose 6 and pipe 3 to the keg as shown in FIG. 1, a complete dispensing system is provided.

Now compressed air is introduced through fitting l4, tubular valve inlet l5, l6, 17 in valve body-13 through the rubber one-way valve 18 (see also FIG. 3) through its flattened outlet opening 20 in flat portion 19, pipe 21 and valve body 9 through opening 23, bore 24, pipe 3 connected to the conventional tapping unit having handle 2 (FIG. 1) in the top central opening of the barrel so as to introduce compressed air in the top of the barrel.

Beer, or other liquid, under pressure will flow through outlet connection 4, valve 5, hose 6, one-way valve 27 which is opened by prong 25a, bore 26, prong 25, valve body 9'and outlet connection 12 through a hose leading to the beer dispensing spigot (not shown).

An outstanding advantage of providing the one-way valve shown in FIG. 2, is that when the units are unplugged as illustrated in FIG. 2 and, in the event valve is accidentally left open, beer will not flow outwardly through hose 6 and bore 26 since the one-way valve 27 automatically closes under the action of spring 29.

Of course, if the next keg to be dispensed should have the single connection keg unit employing only the tavern unit at the top of FIG. 2, the tavern keeper simply unscrews ring from the threads 10a and inserts prongs 23 and 25 into the two valved keg unit and then tightens ring 10 screw threaded to the keg unit which is permanently attached to the top of the keg as it arrives from the brewery.

In short, all the tavern keeper need do when changing from a single tap connection keg to a double tap connection keg it simply to plug the prongs 23 and 25 of the tavern unit to attachment 8, as shown in FIG. 1, to convert the system for use on a double tap connection keg, as shown in FIG. 1.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a novel, highly efficient and extremely inexpensive attachment, for easily and quickly converting beer dispensing systems, that is, from the conventional keg having a single tapping device to one for use on a keg having two tap connections, simply by plugging in an attachment of the present invention and making the double connection through a pair of detachable connections.

While l have illustrated and described a single specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only and that various I changes and modifications may be contemplated within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. An assembly for tapping a keg having liquid contents under pressure, comprising a tavern unit including a valve body having air inlet and liquid outlet connections leading into a pair of parallel sleeves having prong-like pointed ends and having an internally threaded, ring closure element; in combination with an attachment having a pair of parallel bores into which said prongs are closely and detachably fitted, one of said bores having a one-way valve which is normally kept open by one of said prongs to permit liquid to freely flow upwardly therethrough and to automatically close upon withdrawal of said one of said prongs, said attachment having external threads of said ring closure element may be screwed to form an air-tight seal, and a pair of terminal connections at the other end of said attachment, a tap unit detachably connected to the top central opening of the keg along its longitudinal axis, which unit includes a one-way valv for introducing air under pressure into said keg, and an outlet connection and valve at the bottom side opening of said keg for drawing the pressurized liquid contents out of the keg, one of said terminal connections of said attachment being connected to said tavern unit, and the other of said'terminal connections being connected to said outlet connection.

2. An assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein the other of said bores of .said attachment is detachably connected to a pipe for forming one of said terminal connections, the extremity of said pipe including said one-way valve for introducing air under pressure into said keg, saidlastmentioned one-way valve being in the form of a sleeve of elastic material terminating in a dia metrically extending flattened portion having a slit which is open by air under pressure from an external source and closed by air under pressure from said keg.

3. An assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein said air inlet connection of said tavern unit includes a one-way valve for allowing introduction of air under pressure to one of said prong-like pointed ends. 

1. An assembly for tapping a keg having liquid contents under pressure, comprising a tavern unit including a valve body having air inlet and liquid outlet connections leading into a pair of parallel sleeves having prong-like pointed ends and having an internally threaded, ring closure element; in combination with an attachment having a pair of parallel bores into which said prongs are closely and detachably fitted, one of said bores having a one-way valve which is normally kept open by one of said prongs to permit liquid to freely flow upwardly therethrough and to automatically close upon withdrawal of said one of said prongs, said attachment having external threads of said ring closure element may be screwed to form an air-tight seal, and a pair of terminal connections at the other end of said attachment, a tap unit detachably connected to the top central opening of the keg along its longitudinal axis, which unit includes a one-way valv for introducing air under pressure into said keg, and an outlet connection and valve at the bottom side opening of said keg for drawing the pressurized liquid contents out of the keg, one of said terminal connections of said attachment being connected to said tavern unit, and the other of said terminal connections being connected to said outlet connection.
 2. An assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein the other of said bores of said attachment is detachably connected to a pipe for forming one of said termInal connections, the extremity of said pipe including said one-way valve for introducing air under pressure into said keg, said lastmentioned one-way valve being in the form of a sleeve of elastic material terminating in a diametrically extending flattened portion having a slit which is open by air under pressure from an external source and closed by air under pressure from said keg.
 3. An assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein said air inlet connection of said tavern unit includes a one-way valve for allowing introduction of air under pressure to one of said prong-like pointed ends. 